• Four dead in Anacortes refinery explosion and fire
  • The Woman Who Just Might Save the Planet and Our Pocketbooks. What if our economy was not built on competition? Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom talks about her work on cooperation in economics. “Fran: So, are you saying that Hardin is sometimes right?” “Elinor: Yes. People say I disproved him, and I come back and say “No, that’s not right. I’ve not disproved him. I’ve shown that his assertion that common property will always be degraded is wrong.” But he was addressing a problem of considerable significance that we need to take seriously. It’s just that he went too far. He said people could never manage the commons well.”
  • City Will Stop Paying the Poor for Good Behavior
  • The Sandra Bullock Trade. “It is true that poor nations become happier as they become middle-class nations. But once the basic necessities have been achieved, future income is lightly connected to well-being. Growing countries are slightly less happy than countries with slower growth rates, according to Carol Graham of the Brookings Institution and Eduardo Lora. The United States is much richer than it was 50 years ago, but this has produced no measurable increase in overall happiness. On the other hand, it has become a much more unequal country, but this inequality doesn’t seem to have reduced national happiness.”
  • ‘Cap and Trade’ Loses Its Standing as Energy Policy of Choice. As for what might come next, Details of climate bill trickle out.
  • Trying to Tame the Unknowable. “A few years ago, some people thought that major financial crises were a thing of the past. We know that was wrong. Despite our best efforts, more financial crises are likely to occur. As we recover from the last one, we should prepare for the next. “
  • Shake, Rattle, Seattle: “It is only a matter of time before a quake like the one in 1700 happens again in the Pacific Northwest — perhaps tomorrow, or not for 20, 50, 100 years. We do not know that precisely. But we do know that the earthquake will happen. Are we ready? No, we are not. Not in California, and definitely not in the Pacific Northwest.”